this article is republished from healthy debate under a creative commons license. read the original article.
by: catherine varner
while ontario’s covid-19 science advisory table has warned of critical care bed shortages in the coming months, emergency departments, especially those in non-urban regions, are experiencing unprecedented crowding and providing emergency care in precarious places.
the situation is dire. according to health quality ontario , many hospitals have reached unprecedented levels of emergency department crowding. in september 2021, the average length of stay for an admitted patient in the emergency department was 16.5 hours – a whopping eight times longer than what is defined as “prolonged boarding,” a health-care system quality indicator that, as it increases, puts patients at risk.
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as described in the new england journal of medicine , patients boarding in emergency departments are at higher risk of clinical deterioration, have longer in-patient stays and have higher costs of care. prolonged boarding also increases crowding, increasing the likelihood of human error, violence toward staff and high clinical staff turnover.
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with a hospital system running at or over capacity at all times, the highest proportion of acute care beds ever occupied by alternate level of care patients, higher vacancy rates in the health-care workforce, difficulty recruiting and retaining staff and workforce burnout, dale predicts the situation in acute care hospitals over the coming months is precarious at best.
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similar situations are occurring across the country. quebec’s coroner is investigating after a man died after waiting two hours for an ambulance.
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